{"id":39031,"date":"2020-03-12T12:35:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T19:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=39031"},"modified":"2020-03-12T12:35:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T19:35:58","slug":"target-marketing-identifying-and-wooing-key-attendees-for-hosted-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2020\/03\/target-marketing-identifying-and-wooing-key-attendees-for-hosted-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Target Marketing: Identifying and Wooing Key Attendees for Hosted Events"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Who doesn\u2019t like a party? Few activities can bond a business\nand its client\/prospect base quite like a customer appreciation event, one\nwhere there\u2019s little to no shop talk. That\u2019s when you can get to catch up on\nhow families are doing and have earnest conversations without any strings\nattached. Obviously, the ulterior motive is to deepen relationships \u2013 people\nare more apt to do business with those they like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when the event is geared more toward informing and\neducating as opposed to entertaining, it often calls for a more granular\napproach to inviting and marketing to a more specific crowd. As part of our\nstate of the industry reported on hosted events, we asked our dealer panel how\nthey go about promoting and pulling together the invitation list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Larry Weiss, Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Atlantic, Tomorrow\u2019s Office of New York City previously marketed its Expos through its salesforce, with sales teams committing to a number of accounts under their responsibility. That meant hitting the phones hard, in conjunction with email and website promotion. Today, the dealer markets the Expos through the website in addition to social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) and the traditional touchpoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important thing we realized is that our salesforce is the key to drawing clients to this event,\u201d said President Larry Weiss. \u201cEntertainment is important and we held hourly drawings for high-end gifts and, in the past, we\u2019ve had some incredible guest speakers such as NFL stars Phil Simms and Eli Manning, Yankees GM Brian Cashman and decorated Navy SEAL Leif Babin, We are also responsible for introducing Babin to the BTA circuit, where he has spoken at many events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wider Scope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Fisher\u2019s\nTechnology of Boise, Idaho, outreach for the Boise Technology Show extends\nbeyond the dealer\u2019s normal client and prospect list. The target audience is\nvaried to match the diversity of its seminars, so in addition to CEOs and\nowners, Fisher\u2019s will reach out to IT managers, human resources, marketing and general\nadmin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Haley Grigsby, Fisher’s<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to\nHaley Grigsby, Fisher\u2019s pulled together a comprehensive marketing plan with a\nbig social media push through all the notable outlets, in addition to its\nonline event page and email blasts. The dealer also charges for admission, usually\nbetween $25 and $45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do provide an\nallotment of comp tickets for the sales team for customers and prospects,\u201d she\nsaid. \u201cIt used to be complimentary, but we found that people would register and\nnot show up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When KOMAX\nBusiness Systems of South Charleston, West Virginia, decided to take a vertical\napproach to its hosted events, it made targeting clients and prospects a more\nfocused process. For example, when the dealer embarked on an event for the\neducational space, it targeted public and private schools \u2013 namely principals,\nteachers and school board officers \u2013 within a 90-minute drive of Appalachian\nPower Park. In all, 10 counties throughout the region were represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bob Maxwell, \nKOMAX Business Systems <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe sent out\nprobably 150 invitations and we ended up with more than 50 people, representing\nabout 35-40 different entities, including the state board of education,\u201d noted\nBob Maxwell, president of KOMAX. \u201cThe first year we had over 100 people, which\nforced us to get a second suite to handle the overflow. Sometimes, less is\nmore. The 50-75 attendee range is probably our sweet spot. That gives us the\nchance for someone from KOMAX or one of our manufacturers the opportunity to\nspeak personally with everyone who comes to the event.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who doesn\u2019t like a party? Few activities can bond a business and its client\/prospect base quite like a customer appreciation event, one where there\u2019s little to no shop talk. That\u2019s when you can get to catch up on how families are doing and have earnest conversations without any strings attached. Obviously, the ulterior motive is to deepen relationships \u2013 people are more apt to do business with those they like. But when the event is geared more toward informing and educating as opposed to entertaining, it often calls for a more granular approach to inviting and marketing to a more specific crowd. As part of our state of the industry reported on hosted events, we asked our dealer panel how they go about promoting and pulling together the invitation list. Atlantic, Tomorrow\u2019s Office of New York City previously marketed its Expos through its salesforce, with sales teams committing to a number of accounts under their responsibility. That meant hitting the phones hard, in conjunction with email and website promotion. Today, the dealer markets the Expos through the website in addition to social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) and the traditional touchpoints. \u201cThe most important thing we realized is that our salesforce is the key to drawing clients to this event,\u201d said President Larry Weiss. \u201cEntertainment is important and we held hourly drawings for high-end gifts and, in the past, we\u2019ve had some incredible guest speakers such as NFL stars Phil Simms and Eli Manning, Yankees GM Brian Cashman and decorated Navy SEAL Leif Babin, We are also responsible for introducing Babin to the BTA circuit, where he has spoken at many events.\u201d Wider Scope For Fisher\u2019s Technology of Boise, Idaho, outreach for the Boise Technology Show extends beyond the dealer\u2019s normal client and prospect list. The target audience is varied to match the diversity of its seminars, so in addition to CEOs and owners, Fisher\u2019s will reach out to IT managers, human resources, marketing and general admin. According to Haley Grigsby, Fisher\u2019s pulled together a comprehensive marketing plan with a big social media push through all the notable outlets, in addition to its online event page and email blasts. The dealer also charges for admission, usually between $25 and $45. \u201cWe do provide an allotment of comp tickets for the sales team for customers and prospects,\u201d she said. \u201cIt used to be complimentary, but we found that people would register and not show up.\u201d When KOMAX Business Systems of South Charleston, West Virginia, decided to take a vertical approach to its hosted events, it made targeting clients and prospects a more focused process. For example, when the dealer embarked on an event for the educational space, it targeted public and private schools \u2013 namely principals, teachers and school board officers \u2013 within a 90-minute drive of Appalachian Power Park. In all, 10 counties throughout the region were represented. \u201cWe sent out probably 150 invitations and we ended up with more than 50 people, representing about 35-40 different entities, including the state board of education,\u201d noted Bob Maxwell, president of KOMAX. \u201cThe first year we had over 100 people, which forced us to get a second suite to handle the overflow. Sometimes, less is more. The 50-75 attendee range is probably our sweet spot. That gives us the chance for someone from KOMAX or one of our manufacturers the opportunity to speak personally with everyone who comes to the event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":39032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,87,1638],"tags":[108,863,2016],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39033,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39031\/revisions\/39033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}